Cavern of Dreams

It's a gem. It's like Banjo-Kazooie. It's not too lengthy, it doesn't overstay its welcome. It's full of secrets that make you feel good. What I should have known before: You don't have to do some very special tricks with how the momentum works (if you're not speedrunning it). Usually you're getting there when you find something in the level around it.

Just an amazing homage to N64 era 3D platformers. It really captures that dreamlike and slightly creepy vibe. Like a lost game of that era filtered through your childhood memory of it. Platforming and puzzling was just the amount of difficulty. The movement isn't as tight as the best of the genre, but the game knows it and never demands perfection. I felt engaged without ever being frustrated. And it's just the right length, never wearing out its welcome. Started it just to check it out, and 100%'d it a thoroughly enjoyable 8 hours later.

Short but VERY sweet! I played this game during an internet outage and could not WAIT to get internet back to leave a review! Cavern of Dreams is a pretty straightforward collectathon and eases you in with some basic platforming challenges that make use of the very fun speed-focused movement system, but it slowly morphs into less of a platformer and more of a puzzle game. Even though I picked this up specifically to play a platformer, I didn't mind the switchup because the puzzles are really unique and satisfying to solve! There are a lot of secrets to find, really fun levels to traverse, and even [spoiler] a surprising wealth of postgame/post-100% content hidden around the world! [/spoiler] It took me a grand total of about 5 hours to beat at a leisurely pace and another hour to clean up for 100%, and while I loved every minute of it, I really wished it was a bit longer, especially since the completion checklist would have you believe there are more full levels than there really are. When I realized I was in the last level, I was just dreading the end because I felt like there was so much more this game could do! The story is very simple, the basis almost ripped straight from Spyro, but there's a little bit of meat that slowly gets uncovered as you play. There's a surprising amount of environmental storytelling and some hidden lore, and nearing the end, I started getting really attached to the characters and world in a way I haven't felt since Undertale! Cavern of Dreams tries to emulate the style of an N64 or PS1 game (it's very obviously inspired by Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro), and while some cracks show in the graphics and controls, it completely NAILS it in the vibe. There are a lot of mysteries in this game that never get solved, strange characters and environments that make you think about what's going on in this world beyond the bounds of the game. I get a very specific feeling when I play an early-lifecycle N64 game, and this game gives me the same feeling. It tends to go on sale for around $5 during all the major sales, so while I wholeheartedly recommend buying it at full price and playing it right away, you won't have to wait long if you're stingy.

It's fine.

banjo kazooie if it ate a kindnessberry

Pretty good platformer that is filled with nostalgia from the N64 era of collectathons! It was short and sweet, with an okay story sprinkled in. 7/10

A cute and relatively short, low stakes adventure game in the vein of N64/PS1 era 3D platformers. A bratty bat stole all eggs of your siblings and you're venturing out on an adventure to save them. As you collect the eggs you'll keep unlocking more abilities like nose dive or tail whip, which gives you more movement tech to find out and use. Interestingly though is also quite a bit of stuff hidden outside of the maps, which you can only really sink your teeth into once you find all eggs and unlock flying. The area design is decent, though sometimes finding some of the collectibles will make you scratch your head. Story is simplistic, but the world has a coherent lore that isn't always laid out directly, and it made me appreciate the game more, and the music is charming, fitting the dream-like aesthethic of the game decently well. It's very likely not everyone is going to enjoy this due to variety of reasons, invoking the games people from 90s played during childhood and being targeted at the same audience, but it's decent fun for three or so evenings.